Pros
Steady work. A lot of great co-workers and if you're lucky very good department leaders. Pay is average to slightly below average for hospital systems of this size in Miami-Dade. More or less a standard benefits package. The best part of the benefits package is the opportunity to earn 100's of dollars to use to pay your health insurance co-pays.
Cons
Morale among nurses at Baptist Hospital has been crushed. The overall attitude of upper management is that we, as nurses are expendable and should be grateful that we have jobs. During the first wave of the current crisis, Baptist leadership thought it was a good idea to hoard supplies such as N-95 masks and let nurses take care of known COVID cases without N-95 masks. When almost all other similar hospitals in Miami-Dade and Broward are willing to pay their nurses "hazard pay," Baptist refuses to do so. Baptist takes advantage of FEMA programs to get more nurses. Baptist hires a multitude of travel nurses. When ICU nurses ask for "hazard pay," Baptist refuses to pay them. Baptist was willing to let half of their ICU staff leave during the initial surge instead of paying them a pitiful $3 extra an hour. When other nurses were paid to stay home or sit around as "security," ICU nurses were paid normal rate to care for COVID patients every shift they were scheduled for. Baptist was severely understaffed in their ICU during the initial surge because of their refusal to respect their ICU nurses. Nobody actually thinks $40 extra a shift is truly worth having to take the risks associated with caring for COVID patients, but refusing to acknowledge nurses are taking more risk is an unforgivable slap in the face. I'm not going to say how Baptist filled the staffing void during the initial crisis, but it was not safe. Baptist continues to let seasoned nurses leave to other hospital systems to keep their nursing expenses low. Baptist harvests 100's of new graduate nurses a year to fill these holes left by seasoned nurses who have tired of their antics. My father-in-law asked me which hospital that I would recommend him going to if he was ever sick and needed care. I regrettably had to say to go to a Memorial Hospital or if he had to go to a Hospital in Miami-Dade to go to a University of Miami Hospital.